Ithaca College

Dr. Baruch J. Whitehead will present his first paper, entitled The Transformative Power of the Negro Spirituals at the 3rd Annual International Conference on Visual and Performing Arts, held in Athens, Greece, June 4-7 2012. The Athens Institute for Education and Research (ATINER) was established in 1995 as an independent association with a mission to become a forum where academics and researchers from all over the world could meet in Athens and exchange ideas on their research and discuss the future developments of their discipline.

The second presentation will take place at Yale University in Connecticut for the Choirs Transforming Our World Symposium, June 22-23, 2012.  The paper is entitled Songs of Faith, Hope and Jubilation and outlines his work with the Dorothy Cotton Jubilee Singers, a group that is dedicated to the preservation of “Negro Spirituals.”

The event is a two-day symposium organized in association with the International Federation for Choral Music’s Conductors Without Borders network and the American Choral Directors Association's International Conductors Exchange Program. The symposium will explore the ways in which people throughout the US and the world are using choral music to create positive social change, promote mental well-being, and foster community.